HERMOSA BEACH, California — The 2024 AVP schedule was not supposed to be introduced because it was final week:
By accident posted on their very own web site and shared by a slew of followers and varied seaside volleyball teams on Fb earlier than it was taken down from the web site. However the cat was out of the bag, pandora out of its field, and, in a number of hours, the schedule was again on the web site.
Not the supposed launch, no, however, intent however, that’s, for higher or worse, what occurred, which is precisely how the Sand Wannabes, an Austin-based seaside volleyball crew, put it after they turned one of many earlier teams to share the submit on social media.
“It’s right here,” the moderator wrote, “for higher or worse.”
Right here, then, is the ultimate schedule:
A restricted, six-stop season that’s thought of by most to be a three-stop season, with main occasions, renamed “Heritage Sequence,” in Huntington Seashore (Might 17-19), Manhattan Seashore (August 16-18), and Chicago (August 30-September 1), with minor, qualifying occasions, now known as Contenders, in Denver (July 6-7), Waupaca (July 13-14), and Virginia Seashore (August 3-4). These six occasions precede the onset of the brand new AVP League, an eight-week duel-style format which stays a contact imprecise, as particulars are nonetheless coming. With many particulars nonetheless to return, we obtained no scarcity of questions in regards to the AVP, the 2024 seaside volleyball season, and our ideas on it for this week’s episode of SANDCAST: Seashore Volleyball with Tri Bourne and Travis Mewhirter. We did the very best we may to reply the questions with what restricted info now we have, and are aware of share.
Largest AVP Tour snubs? League snubs?
Earlier than we get to any snubs, I wish to acknowledge what I imagine the AVP obtained proper. It stored Huntington Seashore, lengthy one of many Tour’s hottest stops, on the schedule, in addition to Chicago, which has a deep and wealthy historical past, in addition to among the best crowds within the nation — simply the very best outdoors Southern California. The Atlanta-based followers will little question really feel snubbed, however till Atlanta is ready to get the crowds of a Huntington, Manhattan, or Chicago, they will’t moderately argue that the AVP ought to have returned to an costly venue that was hardly ever greater than half full.
Snubbed, to me, is Hermosa Seashore, which I — a Hermosa resident, for transparency’s sake — put as the present chief for biggest seaside volleyball city on the planet. There are not any seaside volleyball followers like South Bay seaside volleyball followers. Hermosa Seashore is the place a big proportion of the professionals reside, and the place almost all of them practice every day. The crowds are great, the ambiance electrical, and the occasion is so alluring that many groups will skip probably the most prized worldwide occasion of the yr — the Gstaad Elite16 — to remain residence, a rarity, particularly in an Olympic qualifying yr. Alas, for a wide range of causes which might be possible complicated and logistical — to not point out monetary — nightmares, Hermosa shouldn’t be on the 2024 schedule.
For the League snub, I feel New Orleans, with its impassioned fanbase and large tradition and zeal for the game, is the most important candidate. It’s all the time a threat going to New Orleans, with its finnicky climate that after truncated qualifier matches to units of 11, 11, and seven, made for the sloppiest of finals in 2015 and 2016, despatched Wilson right into a powerline and ruined fairly a bit of apparatus in 2023. However 4 evening matches? With a bar with low cost and robust drinks subsequent to the courts? Close to the house of the No. 2 workforce on the planet in Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth? The group that raised Evan Cory into some of the thrilling gamers on the AVP? A League cease could be positively wild at Coconut Seashore, and far more manageable to work across the climate given its restricted dimension. I perceive why the AVP won’t wish to roll the cube on New Orleans, particularly after final yr’s pop-up, mildly apocalyptic hurricane, however it positive could be enjoyable to have a League cease there.
How will qualifying for occasions be totally different this yr?
Qualifying isn’t all that totally different from 2023. Huntington Seashore and Manhattan Seashore will each have on-site qualifiers, which is the way it was in 2023. The highest 4 ending groups within the Denver and Waupaca Contenders will punch their tickets to Manhattan Seashore as properly, and the highest 4 finishers in Virginia Seashore will qualify for Chicago.
As for the AVP League, there are three other ways one can qualify: Win a Heritage Sequence (Huntington, Manhattan, Chicago), accumulate sufficient factors through your prime two Heritage finishes of the yr, or make a convincing sufficient case for the AVP to grant you a wild card. How the wild playing cards are determined, and who decides them, is among the particulars that stay imprecise, however given the general lack of untamed playing cards doled out in regular tournaments of yr’s previous, I’d count on the eight League slots to be stuffed by Heritage winners and point-earners.
What’s a younger gun workforce that would take a giant leap this yr?
Groups are uncommon for younger gamers, as any proficient younger participant’s essential objective is to show themselves worthy of a companion improve, particularly as an Olympic quad involves its finish and there will likely be inevitable mid-season companion shakeups. So relatively than highlighting younger gun groups, I’ll level out a number of youthful gamers, or middle-aged ones who haven’t but been established, as my shares to purchase this yr.
Evan Cory: The 26-year-old has had each his sensible rookie season and one thing of a sophomore stoop. Now in his third yr as knowledgeable, I’m anticipating Cory to search out his ft once more and proceed the upward trajectory he was on in 2022.
Wyatt Harrison: Harrison made three essential attracts in 2023 in three totally different manners: New Orleans split-blocking with Noah Dyer, Hermosa Seashore blocking for Jake Landel, Manhattan Seashore defending for Money Adamsen. The place some would possibly see “tweener,” I simply see a wonderful volleyball participant. True to type, he’s starting this yr split-blocking with Cory in a NORCECA qualifier subsequent Thursday. Whether or not he winds up blocking, defending, or splitting all year long is anybody’s guess, however he has the flexibility to play with the very best participant out there.
Jordan Hoppe: It’s stunning that Hoppe solely made one Professional or Gold Sequence essential draw final yr, and that got here within the opening occasion of the season in Miami. He has a depraved serve, with large tempo and glorious location, and offensively he’s bodily, with vary off the web and candy palms for whomever his companion is. To start the yr, that companion is James Shaw, again on the seaside after spending final yr competing in Germany.
Zephyr Dew: If you need a younger younger gun, Dew is it. He’s simply 18 years previous, a Santa Cruz seaside rat who performs in each CBVA and little event you’ll find. Scott Davenport and the USA Nationwide Crew Developmental Program have been smart to get Dew into the combination. He has a reside arm and reads the sport properly for such a younger age, and, my private favourite high quality, he’s spunky and fiery, not afraid to play with somewhat emotion, one thing I feel our sport wants.
Dave Wieczorek: Not technically a “younger gun,” Wieczorek is younger in seaside years. Final season, after an indoors profession through which he competed in Germany, Turkey and Greece, was his first on the sand, and he logged wins over Ed Ratledge and JM Plummer, Hagen Smith and Logan Webber, and Troy Area and Lila Tucker. With a full fall and winter of low season of reps with the USA program, the 6-foot-8 blocker will nonetheless be uncooked, however immeasurably extra polished than he was in 2023.
Alaina Chacon: How one is meant to pick out a handful of girls to look at is an not possible job, for the entire proper causes, however it might be troublesome to overlook Alaina Chacon. The primary time I noticed Chacon play, she was split-blocking on courtroom one at Florida State with Molly McBain, dominating with a gritty, small-ball type that Brooke Niles liked. McBain is now legitimately within the mixture of the Olympic race after getting picked up by Sarah Pavan, and Chacon has a Tour Sequence win to her title and took a seventh in Manhattan Seashore, each with Kylie Deberg. She’s at present signed up for a bunch of Futures with Mariah Whalen, one other excellent athlete.
Sarah Wooden: If this have been an precise inventory to purchase, I’d take into account betting on Sarah Wooden at this second in her profession to be the tough equal of shopping for Apple at $22 on its IPO. She’s simply 15 years previous, so a part of me feels bizarre placing any hype or strain on the Pennsylvania native, however she’s made six Tour Sequence essential attracts and one Professional Sequence, in Hermosa Seashore final yr. It’s arduous to disregard that success and such a younger age.
Chloe Loreen, Natalie Robinson: I’m lumping these two collectively as a result of all that I’ve seen from Loreen and Robinson is when they’re collectively. And when they’re collectively, it’s a potent combo. Whereas most seaside volleyball followers received’t comply with Tour Sequence occasions intently, it was no small occasion when these two made the finals of the Waupaca Tour Sequence, successful 5 straight matches to take action. Spectacular as that was, they put the AVP world on discover after they surprised Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles within the first spherical of the Manhattan Seashore Open, then proved it was no fluke by sweeping Macy Jerger and Megan Rice and pushing Zana Muno and Deahna Kraft, and Brook Bauer and Megan J. Rice within the following two rounds. Whereas it was a shock, when reviewing their collegiate success at Washington, it actually shouldn’t have been: In serving to Derek Olson flip this system round, they turned this system’s first All-Individuals in class historical past, and Robinson is the all-time wins chief (95) whereas Loreen is No. 2 (92).
